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Tiny Davis

Biography by Craig Harris

Trumpet player for the first racially integrated woman's jazz band, the International Sweethearts Of Rhythm, Ernestine "Tiny" Davis joined with vocalist/leader Anna Mae Winburn and tenor saxophonist Viola…Read Full Biography

Artist Biography
by Craig Harris

Trumpet player for the first racially integrated woman's jazz band, the International Sweethearts Of Rhythm, Ernestine "Tiny" Davis joined with vocalist/leader Anna Mae Winburn and tenor saxophonist Viola Burnside, to bring uplifting, swinging, music to Black audiences of the 1940s. A student at the Piney Woods Country Life School, in Mississippi, when she and fellow students formed International Sweethearts Of Rhythm in 1939, Davis remained with the band the full decade of its existence. Davis appeared in two films with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. While International Sweethearts of Rhythm: Hottest All-Girl Band showcased the band's swinging music, Tiny And Ruby: Hill Divin' Women, which focused on her relationship with longtime lover, drummer and pianist, Ruby Lucas.